Realigning the British Army after Ukraine

[Cold_Collation]

OTOH:

'Join the Regulars, do block jobs'

Because there's no training budget*



*Shouting 'BANG' since 1980-something.

 

[Bubbles_Barker]

Back up a little. It means having a coherent idea of what the army is meant to do, and then another coherent plan of how to deliver that. Both happen long before procurement.

What the Army is meant to do:

 

[Bubbles_Barker]

'Join the Reserves and get fucked about on a part-time basis'?

I'm just trying to draw a little of the sting out of it.

Come on, that hasn’t changed for millennia!

I had a chat with D Reserves this morning that rapidly became a rant about the London Jocks being forcibly integrated into the Guards.

He didn’t agree with my choice of words!

 

[Cold_Collation]

What the Army is meant to do:

View attachment 673499

That runs the risk of upsetting people.

I suppose, though, if we were to upset everyone equally or give everyone equal opportunity to be similarly upset...

 

[Cold_Collation]

Come on, that hasn’t changed for millennia!

I had a chat with D Reserves this morning that rapidly became a rant about the London Jocks being forcibly integrated into the Guards.

He didn’t agree with my choice of words!

Hey - feel free to update it.

 

[Bubbles_Barker]

That runs the risk of upsetting people.

I suppose, though, if we were to upset everyone equally or give everyone equal opportunity to be similarly upset...

It’s official, it’s the cover of Ares & Athena…

 

[BuggerAll]

Listening to the US Sec of the Army. One of the things she said was that the IS Army is moving to the Division as the centre of gravity rather than the BCT.

Ben Wallace mentioned that we hardly deployed a Div in Iraq. I’m not sure we can do it now although we would hope to provide a framework for an allied Div and then breed Corps (ARRC).

 

[Bob65]

Ben Wallace mentioned that we hardly deployed a Div in Iraq. I’m not sure we can do it now although we would hope to provide a framework for an allied Div and then breed Corps (ARRC).

Well we have 3 divisional HQs but will end up with barely enough CR3 for 1 armoured brigade. The question is then why any allies, who will almost certainly show up with more men and more heavy metal, because they have them and we do not, would want to place their contribution to the main effort under a British HQ, rather than expecting us to slot into one of their formations.

 

[Bubbles_Barker]

Listening to the US Sec of the Army. One of the things she said was that the IS Army is moving to the Division as the centre of gravity rather than the BCT.

Ben Wallace mentioned that we hardly deployed a Div in Iraq. I’m not sure we can do it now although we would hope to provide a framework for an allied Div and then breed Corps (ARRC).

She also made a point of saying ‘hard on’ many times, as if it was the subject of a dare!

 

[Yokel]

To be fair its get fucked about by FTRS

You are just bitter because you could not get an FTRS HQ job making decisions about things you have no understanding of with the possibility of promotion to OF4 or beyond, without ever leaving the HQ or talking to people who are not FTRS HQ types.

'Join the Reserves and get fucked about on a part-time basis'?

I'm just trying to draw a little of the sting out of it.

No when it comes to screwing your life up they do it full time. Beatings will continue until morale improves.

 

[instinct]

You are just bitter because you could not get an FTRS HQ job making decisions about things you have no understanding of with the possibility of promotion to )F6 or beyond, without ever leaving the HQ or talking to people who are not FTRS HQ types.



No when it comes to screwing your life up they do it full time. Beatings will continue until morale improves.

I just want my CBE

 

[rampant]

Net result of spaffing billions on pointless lockdowns, WFH luvvies, and vaccines that were designed, and only really worked, against the original strain of "virus of unspecified origin". Chuck in all unions trying a cash grab for the 70's era rail workers, MIA GPs, a supermassive blackhole NHS, commie teachers and of course, benefits, and before you know it, there's zero pounds left in the coffers for an actual real life defcon 1 emergency.

No, the Conservative Party, and Labour to a lesser extant (but at east they HAD a coherant plan - see Lord Robertson for details, See G.Brown for hamstringing it) have been gleeful hacking away at the defence budget since 1991, ably assisted by a Head Shed (LAND) that doesn;t know what it wants and can't articulate a defence policy. Each successive defence review since 1991 has been an exercise in how to spend less and less and less, because they don't like spending money and don't know how or why that money should be spent. These same governments have simulateneously hollowed out the instutions that supported the military, see the sell of of DERA, closing of RARDE etc etc (this applies to other areas of govt too, not just defence) they have applied, foolishly in many cases, Private sector ideologies that are an anathema to retain a robust defence posture - you can't rely on Just-In-Time Supply chains when you suddenly need a fuckton of 155mm ammunition and this is especially true when you've closed down all your Ordnance Factories and have to rely on the Belgians.

 

[Yokel]

Opps! Honest typo, I meant to say OF4 - the odd individuals that like to tell the lead schools that they cannot teach what they teach five days a week all year round, and like to send out diktats that go against official policy set down in documents like JSPs or BRs.

These throbbers exist at OF2 and OF4 level as well.

 

[Cold_Collation]

Well we have 3 divisional HQs but will end up with barely enough CR3 for 1 armoured brigade. The question is then why any allies, who will almost certainly show up with more men and more heavy metal, because they have them and we do not, would want to place their contribution to the main effort under a British HQ, rather than expecting us to slot into one of their formations.

Our NATO commitment is a division, n'est-ce pas?

 

[Roadster280]

She also made a point of saying ‘hard on’ many times, as if it was the subject of a dare!

She's a Penny Mordaunt Walt then

 

[Bubbles_Barker]

No, the Conservative Party, and Labour to a lesser extant (but at east they HAD a coherant plan - see Lord Robertson for details, See G.Brown for hamstringing it) have been gleeful hacking away at the defence budget since 1991, ably assisted by a Head Shed (LAND) that doesn;t know what it wants and can't articulate a defence policy. Each successive defence review since 1991 has been an exercise in how spend less and less and less, because they don't like spending money and don't know how or why that money should be spent. These same governments have simulateneously hollowed out the instutions that supported the military, see the sell of of DERA, closing of RARDE etc etc (this applies to other areas of govt too, not just defence) they have applied, foolishly in many cases, Private sector ideologies that are an anathema to retain a robust defence posture - you can't rely on Just-In-Time Supply chains when you suddenly need a fuckton of 155mm ammunition and this is especially true when you've closed down all your Ordnance Factories and have to rely on the Belgians.

Absence of a threat or the inability to coherently argue a threat in the face of many, many more competing priorities.

Is a less emotional way of putting it.

 

[Bubbles_Barker]

She's a Penny Mordaunt Walt then

Didn’t look too dissimilar tbh, but in truth it was ‘we’re working hard on…’ or ‘we’re training hard on…’ as opposed to ‘that RIFLES bloke in the front row seems to have a hard on’.

Either way, it reminded me of exactly that Mordaunt dare (and many others, as if MPs got there first!)

 

[Stibbon]

To be fair its get fucked about by FTRS

You must have drawn the short straw.

 

[Bubbles_Barker]

I imagine that having the bulk of unit vehicles stored elsewhere, fitted for but not with CES, possibly not in battleworthy condition, is going to waste at least a week of Op Mobilise.

Rebuilding Ashchurch will take half a decade, especially as they aren’t spending a lot of money on it.

 

[Listy]

That runs the risk of upsetting people.

I suppose, though, if we were to upset everyone equally or give everyone equal opportunity to be similarly upset...

Can't upset someone if they're dead.